A New York judge has threatened Donald Trump with jail for a “blatant violation” of a gag order in his civil fraud trial.
Judge Arthur Engoron said in court that the former president had failed to remove a social media post mocking a clerk at the court.
Judge Engoron demanded Mr Trump take down the “untrue and disparaging” post about the clerk earlier this month.
He said the post was deleted on social media, but remained on his website.
“Incendiary untruths can and have led to serious physical harm,” Judge Engoron said on Friday.
“I will now allow the defendant to explain why this should not end up with serious sanctions or I could possibly imprison him.”
Mr Trump’s lawyer, Christopher Kise, apologised on his client’s behalf and said it was an “inadvertent” mistake because while the post was deleted from social media, aides forgot to remove it from the campaign website.
The judge said he would take the matter “under advisement” and rule on it later.
